Synopsis
A documentary on the life and work of Gene Clark, co-founder of The Byrds, whose subsequent career was a rollercoaster of pioneering music and personal disaster.
2013 Directed by Jack Kendall, Paul Kendall
A documentary on the life and work of Gene Clark, co-founder of The Byrds, whose subsequent career was a rollercoaster of pioneering music and personal disaster.
Magical documentary on my lifelong hero Gene Clark, BBC Four delivers once again.
As I mentioned here, Gene Clark has been in my life at least since I was 5-years-old, when my Dad bought my brother a Dillard and Clark compilation CD. We played it over and over again, and when I was 18, an Adam Green album led me to rediscover Gene. I'd never even realised Gene was one of the Byrds, which is embarrassing.
This documentary is filled with Gene's music, ranging from his very early appearances with the New Christy Minstrels up until those last records with Carla Olson, and his extraordinary voice is rightly left to do most of the explaining of why he was such…
A disappointing doc about the mercurial Byrd, who never attained the success his unique talents deserved - largely because he refused to play the publicity game, and kept on pushing the self-destruct button.
There's great music to spare (much of it played distractingly under the interviews), but the film is shallow and poorly-paced, racing past triumphs like Clark's 70s triumphs White Light and No Other, then dwelling on the McGuinn, Clark and Hillman era - illustrating a point about his abilities as a live performer by showing footage of him miming listlessly on a TV show - and crawling through his prolonged decline.
The interviews are also a mixed bag: Clark's wife, two of his 12 siblings and several noted…
I don't think I've seen a music documentary yet that doesn't feature Tom Petty at least somewhere. Dude's like Zelig.
I watched a shortened version of this? Well, fuck me. It’s a decent no frills rundown of Gene Clark’s life, in any case. Thankfully, all the interviewees are old people who knew the guy, some of whom died while this film was being edited. Accounts of Crosby and McGuinn’s bullying are softened considerably, and there’s nothing about Gene using his newfound wealth from Full Moon Fever royalties to buy luxury cars and develop a real predilection for smoking crack. At least that’s what it said in the biography I read. I would have liked way more discussion about individual songs and some mention of the players on White Light, but for the most part the doc did spend sufficient amounts of time on the different eras of his career. It looks like the DVD version is 20 minutes longer, though…plus there’s nearly an hour of interviews included as a special feature. Too bad it’s not on streaming.
Good music throughout just a shame it has to follow the usual trajectory of early success and then continual drink / drugs / decline with always just missed ability to get back on top.
It’s not as deep or exhaustive as I’d like, but it’s still valuable even though it’s impossible to find. David Crosby speaks slower in this than any human being has ever spoken.
Iba a decir que con lo que evolucionaron los documentales, Gente Clark se merece que le hagan uno nuevo y que esté disponible en alguna plataforma de streaming importante para que más gente conozca su legado. Pero la verdad es que este documental austero, pobremente editado y casi inconseguible (lo venden en DVD en la web de los realizadores) es irónicamente más de lo mismo en la carrera de un tipo que tuvo todo para ser el 1 y lo desaprovechó. Bueno, tanto no porque en mi corazón sí lo es
Me partió al medio enterarme que llegó a salir de gira con bandas *tributo* a los Byrds.
P.D. no supe cómo meter una referencia a Alex Chilton pero la comparación es obvia.
A great songwriter, and a passable documentary, heavily reliant upon talking heads. Would be 20 mins shorter if David Crosby was able to make it to the end of an anecdote.
For Fans of: The Byrds, Highs and Lows, Self-Destruction, Incredible Songs, Labors of Love, Waiting What Feels Like 10 Hours for David Crosby to Finish A Sentence.
It’s amazing how many times Gene Clark was able to bounce back after adversity...but unfortunately he would inevitably decline again. A great piece of filmmaking lovingly made by its filmmakers about an unheralded genius.